


Flickering

by TamiHaru



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dance, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Danceteacher!Levi, F/M, Mentions of Death, Past Relationship levitra, Past Relationship(s), Song Lyrics, fuck tons of lyrics reference
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-30
Updated: 2015-03-30
Packaged: 2018-03-20 10:54:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,686
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3647673
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TamiHaru/pseuds/TamiHaru
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Is it just a dancing lesson, or are we mending there something else?</p><p>Is it a step to the right direction?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Flickering

 ~*~*~*~*  


Right now, too long for my liking, I have not been completely alright.

I have been a pitiful, brokenhearted shadow of the former me. Right now I’m that shadow which usually just followed me.

"Greetings, mister Ackerman." someone greeted me from behind the info desk when I went past it. I never answered back though.

But I think my work mates have used to it by now. The newbies learn quickly to leave me alone too.

"LEVI! SWEETIE!" was the loud obnoxious scream which made me quicken my steps.

Still, even though I look really intimidating to some people, there are others who are not scared of my 'always planning murder'-face. Hanji is one of them, who now had jumped on my back.

"Fuck off." I growled, but my silent threat went on deaf ears.

"Grumpy as always."

I did not even bother to answer her. She stated that every morning when I came to work.

_She loved to be free. She was hooked on the adrenaline and that was the death of her._

Hanji resembled the petite strawberry blonde girl too much. A year ago she was the one who attacked me full of brightness and energy.

She, Petra Ral was my candle who guided me through the merciless dark labyrinth called life.

"Levi? How are you? Your client came early today so you should hurry up. She's already waiting at the dance room."

"Tch. She's the reason I came to work on Saturday morning dumbass. Besides, who even comes to practice dancing on Saturday morning?" I asked. Usually people on Saturday mornings were too lazy to climb up from their beds, or they were battling against the unforgiving hangover.

Some came to work, for example me and Hanji.

"Someone who wants to learn to dance, and is too busy to go to the lessons on weekdays. Relax, you're used to this. You can go back home and finish your glass of wine in no time!"

"Tch, I wish."

"Camoon! Don't be so gloomy first thing in the morning!"

"I always am."

"Well, that's true. Anyway, here's the folder about your client." Hanji said and handed the folder with an always so creepy grin.

I snatch the folder out of her hand and quickly make my way to change my clothes. The lesson should start in few minutes.

In the staff's changing room I quickly change into my work clothes. It's just one client today, so grey baggy sweatpants and a black tank top to show off my tattoos and biceps would be decent enough.

I grab my water bottle and a pile of CD's and head for one of the dance rooms.

_Build your own wings of freedom._

That was the only guideline Petra knew, and she made me craft it on my arm.

It always hits the eye when it's not covered, and it makes me think the love of my life even more.

It was Petra who helped me out of the streets. In fact, I'm surprised that I have not sunk back when she was ripped out from this world.

My other tattoos are from the times when I was part of this one gang. Each one of them has a different story, and I used to whisper those stories on Petra's ear while she traced her fingers along the lines of ink.

Her favorite was the magpie, because she loved the story behind it. It was just a simple thing that happened when I was a child, but it always made her laugh.

I opened the door to one of the dance room's, and I was met with a blank and dark pair of eyes.

It looks like I would be teaching a dark raven haired girl who obviously was still a brat.

I was trying to introduce myself and say something, but I was nailed on the door by her analyzing gaze. No one said anything. We just stared at each other.

"Oi! What the hell you are glaring at?" I finally managed to growl. She looked like she was suddenly ripped back from a dream, and she blinked.

"You must be Levi, right? You're shorter than I excepted."

I have never come across someone who was almost as blunt as me. And you know, these three hours would be the most agonizing. I already hate my client!

"Yes and do you have anything else to say about me and my looks?"

"You look really mean and boring. Nice tattoos though. Almost forgot to mention that you look like you want to and could murder someone."

"Thank you." I groaned with sarcasm coloring heavily my voice.

She said almost the same things that Petra did a few years ago.

"No problem. I'm Mikasa Ackerman."

_The same surname as mine?_

I quickly looked for the sign on her arm that every member of the Ackerman family had.

I found it, but it was not similar like my own.

There were two families named Ackerman, but she comes from the other one than me.

  _I have a salamander, while she has an eagle._

"Okay, have you danced before or is this your first time dancing?"

"I was into ballet when I was a little."

Interesting.

"Any wishes what kind of dance styles you want to learn?"

"No idea."

"Let's start with trying to learn how to control our movements. Couple or solo?"

"Couple."

"Okay."

I liked this girl a little bit more, because she didn't beat around the bushes. Unlike a few of my friends.

I did not bother with greeting properly and shaking hands with her. Instead I made a beeline towards the enormous sound equipment. All the time while I was fumbling around with the music, I felt a pair of dark eyes staring at me closely. It made me somehow nervous, but it didn't show on my cold and intimidating demeanor.

In the end, I always had these powerful and different feelings surging through me, but none of my inner shit storms made it to my face.

Some people called me heartless, but that's a little exaggerated. They are just cheated by my emotionless face and ice cold aura.

I got the music ready and I put it to play some peaceful songs for the start.

"Let's start with stretches." I said and stood up.

 

~*~*~*~

 

Thankfully this girl was one of the smarter ones, because she had proper dancing clothes. A simple black dress, burgundy leg warmers and black leggings. With those clothes you could do the stretches properly.

But her dress wasn't the one stealing my attention.

It was the long deep red scarf wrapped tightly around her neck. It seemed to be important to her judging from the way how she nudged the end of it with her fingers.

It was my cue to stop staring her all the time and start to properly direct her.

The girl stayed silent for the most of the time. Sometimes she came back with snarky answers that annoyed me to no end, but thankfully only couple times.

Only she listened my advices and did what I told her to do. This girl was quick to learn, and I was thankful for that. I hated some of my clients because they were too busy trying to flirt with me and spew all kind of shit from their mouths and not concentrate on my teachings. Mikasa was different from them.

Teaching people how to dance, how to express yourself by only using your body is something I have enjoyed doing after I got out from the streets.

Dancing has been that one thing which had kept my legs on the ground. Dancing was my way to battle against the ever growing sadness and depression when Petra was ripped away from me.

One of my happiest moments was that one time when Petra and I danced together our wedding dance. To bring two loves of my life together, that was something I yearned to do again.

_But never will._

After stretching and warming up we practiced the basic steps of jive and boogie woogie. These styles were quite fast paced, so we took a short break.

"So? Why did you want to start taking dance courses all of a sudden?" I asked after throwing my water bottle to the side of the dance room. I don't know how, but I knew this girl wasn't here trying to learn fast steps of jive on her own initiative. And I don't know why, but I wanted to know more of her.

"Well, to say it straight, I was forced to come here by my best friend."

"How come?"

"I think he's worried about me, because he once said to me that I was too closed off. But I had a good reason for it."

"And the reason is…?" instantly I regretted it that I let those words slip from my mouth.

"That's not your business, shortie." her words practically oozed from venom, and her bright gaze had turned into something cold and numb. I think I crossed some kind of line here.

"I'm sorry." I don't know how, "You don't need to answer that." but her glare melted a little after that.

And I was relieved, but at the same time terrified because of my little mishap.

_Levi Ackerman never apologized to anyone, not even himself._

_And yet he was stuttering those words to a complete stranger._

Mikasa stood up from the place beside me and stretched her arms. "Think we have rested enough? Then could you teach me how to dance waltz and tango?"

"Right." I mumbled and stood up too.

"Let's start with waltz."

It looked like the girl knew a little about waltz, so we could move to slightly harder steps. It took exactly half an hour for her to glide through the dance floor with me and do a couple simple lifts and a few spins. All the while her red scarf was flying behind her.

"You're a fast learner, miss." I said with a confident smirk. No one prepared me for the stunning smile she showed for me. It made my heart skip a few beats, but I wouldn't admit that to anyone.

When the song ended, I took a step away from her and was ready to move on to tango.

"Let's try some tango-"

"No, one more song." the girl said effectively cutting me off. Next song had started to play from the speakers, and it looked like the girl knew it.

"I-" I was known from my stubbornness, but when I saw her puppy eyes, I was stunned.

"If you insist."

Next thing I knew was that we were gliding through the floor in perfect sync, and the girl was softly humming the words of the song.

 

_Choke it up the orange kind, I will not be by your side,_

_Met him once before but now he's gone,_

_Picturesque in solitude, unfortunately full of you,_

_Harmful to the point of moving on._

 

And I was mesmerized.

 

_Another heartbeat, waking up the whole street,_

_I was never much, for hopeless carry on,_

_When the scar bleeds, wait until you can't scream,_

_I won't be the last, so watch me take this home._

 

What started as a smile ended in tears. The girl was sobbing softly on my shoulder when the song ended.

"This was my brother's favorite song." the black haired girl whispered. I decided not to pry into her business and just silently comfort her. I rubbed soft circles on her back reassuringly and came to the conclusion that something that troubled her was about her brother.

I don't know what it was, and I wasn't sure I would get to hear about it. But still, I hoped it wasn't something you couldn't just overcome.

After a while, Mikasa had stopped crying and she lifted her head from my shoulder. Her eyes were red and buffy and she looked embarrassed.

"Oh my god. I got snot on your shirt!" she said and looked even more embarrassed. I chuckled and brushed the remaining tears from her cheeks.

"I don't mind this time."

"…"

"…"

"Sorry about that. It was really embarrassing."

Don't know how, but I knew that she was someone like me, who didn't apologize too often.

"Sometimes it's easier to show weakness in front of strangers than your loved ones."

I had learned that myself a few years ago.

Mikasa just looked at me with the faintest smile on her lips.

"Thank you. Could you show how the tango went?"

And that's how we moved on the tango. It was a little harder for her than waltz, but soon enough she had found the same dignity all tango dancers carried.

The dignified steps of tango was the reason I loved it. Of all the dance styles I had tried through my career, I had not met another style with the same amount of dignity tango had. Both Hanji and Erwin said tango suited me, but I’m not sure if I agree with them.

Besides, you should've seen it when I tried to teach Petra to dance tango. It didn't suit her at all. She was too sloppy and clumsy for it.

But oh damn could she dance Latin. Just saying, those styles suited her, especially rumba.

Unfortunately for me, she was not that keen on dancing like I was, still am.

It took couple curses and stumbles from Mikasa to finally keep up with me somehow. It didn't take long from her to battle again against the smile trying to conquer her face.

Her dancing was not perfect, but it was still like candy for my eyes.

I loved that elegance coming from her, and it suited her.

We danced couple songs, and right after that Mikasa decided it was great time for a break.

We sat on the floor both breathing heavily and chatted a little about the little mistakes she did.

We had sat there awhile, until I got an idea.

"You said you were into ballet earlier? What do you remember from it?"

"Erm, only bits and pieces."

"Show me.”

I wanted to see, because ballet was the only dance style I disliked. Too hard, I hurt my toe while trying it once.

She stared at me with wide eyes.

"For real?"

"Lyrical, then."

"Okay."

"You know how to dance lyrical?"

"Yes."

And she stood up and took a stance in the middle of the dance floor. I found myself staring at her again, but quickly went to the music equipment. Not long, the room was filled with steady beat of music, and I sat down near the wall, giving the floor to Mikasa.

It happened to be one of Petra's favorite songs.

 

_There's nothin' you can say, nothin' you can do_

_There's nothin' in between, you know the truth_

_Nothin' left to face, there's nothin' left to lose_

_Nothin' takes your place_

 

I knew the words by heart, so I mouthed them silently while watching her dance.

 

_When they say you're not that strong_

_You're not that weak, it's not your fault_

_And when you climb up to your hill_

_Up to your place, I hope you're well_

 

At first Mikasa's moves were not so smooth and elegant, but clumsy and unsteady. Still, little by little she changed when she started to remember the steps better.

 

_What you want, what you lost_

_What you had, what is gone is over_

_What you got, what you love_

_What you need, what you have is real_

 

I loved how she changed when the song hit the part with heavy guitar. I just sat and admired how she jumped elegantly through the air and started to spin around and around really fast.

After that, her movements slowed down bit by bit until she stopped a moment before the song ended. When the deep red scarf slipped down from her shoulders on the floor, it was like a curtain fell down finishing a stunning performance. Only audience's loud shouting and clapping was missing.

"So only bits and pieces? Wow. Just think about what you could've reached, if only you wouldn't have stopped back then." I said, silently admiring her. This girl has talent.

"Really?" she turned to look at me with a bright grin.

"Yeah." I chuckled when I paused the stereos. I stood up and walked to the girl who was panting heavily and picked up the long and soft scarf from the floor.

"So, what's about this scarf here? You didn't put it away even after dancing and sweating a lot."

"It's not just a scarf. My brother gave it to me when we were little."

It was always her brother behind everything.

"Where is he now?" I was petrified to ask. If she shut down like before now I-

"He died three weeks ago from heart disease."

Oh… What did I say about the thing troubling her not to be a big deal? Losing your brother is a big change after all.

I had no idea what to say, because other people's pity and 'I'm sorry’s’ only irritate me. So I did the first thing which came to mind.

I wrapped the scarf around her neck and tied it like that it wouldn't slip off too easily.

"Please accept my condolences."

"Thanks, Levi." she whispered and stared at me with watery eyes that were full of new hope.

"I have lost someone important a few months ago, so I think I know how you feel." I murmured and gave a weak smile. She just nodded, but I had to sweep off a few chase tears from her soft cheeks.

"Believe me or not, it gets better little by little." I said with a gentle voice I didn't even know I still had.

 

~*~*~*~

 

We were rehearsing the steps for rest of the time, when Hanji came barreling in. Unusual for her, she had stopped on the doorway mid-scream when she saw us dancing tango. These moments when I got Hanji to shut up were quite rare if I was to be honest.

When the last song of my dancing lesson with Mikasa ended, Hanji had started to jump and scream in delight effectively scaring Mikasa.

"OH LEVI LEVI LEVI LEVI LEVI YOU FORMER KING OF TANGO! I THINK YOU FOUND YOUR NEW QUEEN!" the brunette with unfashionable glasses screamed and ran to me. I had no way to dodge her incoming bear hug.

"Tch. Stop screaming you moron! You're scaring the client." I murmured and tried to squirm away from her iron grip. Only a silent giggle from behind me had Hanji easing her grip on me and jumping happily towards Mikasa.

Did Mikasa laugh at me just now?

"Oh hello! You must be Mikasa, right? My name is Hanji Zoe, and I'm this dance studio's deputy director and Levi's former manager!" she introduced herself with a loud voice.

"Nice to meet you. Levi has been competing before? So that's why his name sounded familiar." Mikasa answered and I confirmed it with a nod.

"Yeah. And oh boy was he good! He would've become filthy rich but he stopped competing when P-"

"Okay okay shitty glasses stop it right there, thank you!" I cut her off slightly annoyed by her blurting something like that out loud so carelessly.

"Oh! I'm sorry Levi. But you know, you two should go and talk to Erwin, because you two are made for each other. And if I’m right, you have only competed alone, not with a dance pair." Hanji revealed while looking at me with a terrifying gleam in her eyes.

"Uh, I think that's a little too enthusiastic. I only learned tango for the first time what, like half an hour ago." Mikasa said. Unfortunately it made the gleam in Hanji's eyes even more terrifying.

"Then you have even more reasons to try it out! Mikasa has talent, am I right, Levi?"

"She has but you're going a little too fast here, four eyes."

I knew it already. There was zero possibility to stop Hanji when she got an idea.

"Don't worry about it! I can talk with Erwin about this! Mikasa, just be sure you can show up at the studio tomorrow morning at 10 am! Levi too! No sleeping in, shortie!" Hanji screamed and was out the door before I could throw a fit about it.

"Meet Hanji Zoe. Official tornado detained in a body of a woman." I sighed. I heard that muffled giggle again.

"I don't even know if you're into dance that you could throw your whole heart to it, but if you are, show up here at the studio tomorrow. If you're not, then don't show up." I said. I had to show the way away from this.

"Hm. You know, I'm in. After Eren died, I kind of lost the ground beneath me. Through this I might get myself back on my feet again."

I smirked for that. This girl had a fighting spirit even I was envious about.

I glanced at the clock, and saw that the dancing lesson had come to an end. That made me think about my still unfinished bottle of red wine back at home.

Not like other of my lonely Saturday's spent with a bottle of cheap wine, now I could bring some company.

"Hey, guess what I always do on Saturdays after my morning lessons?"

"Hm?"

"I spend the rest of my day nursing a bottle of red wine."

"Hah, you have no friends, don't you?"

"I gotta disagree with that."

Okay, I may have lied. You could calculate all my friends with just one hand.

"But still, care to join me for a glass of wine?" I asked with a sneaky gleam in my eyes.

"Maybe I would. But you should know that this is ridiculous." she answered with a wide grin.

I had to stop and think about it. Is this your doings, Petra? Is this your way of saying to me to gather my shits together? Do I really deserve that? Do I really deserve a second chance for happiness?

**Author's Note:**

> I'd like to inform you that I know NOTHING about dancing.
> 
> The songs used in this are:  
> \- Kyte - Scratches  
> \- Our Lady Peace - Not Enough
> 
> Posted also in my DeviantArt~ (link is in my profile)
> 
> Thank you for reading!
> 
> ~Tami


End file.
